Cautious optimism as US troops prepare to help retake Mosul from ISIS

As the United States sends more troops to Iraq to help retake Mosul from the Islamic State, Catholics can view the action as just even while remaining vigilant about the long-term mission, one moral theologian said.

“Political order is a good that the just war theory affirms, and our efforts to assist the Iraqi government in bringing increased stability to Iraq is part of our ongoing responsibility that traces all the way back to our original intervention in Iraq,” Dr. Joseph Capizzi, a professor of moral theology and ethics at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., told EWTN News.

The move should be seen as the U.S. trying “to remove ISIS from Iraq,” he said, noting that the terror group is “a threat to the stability of that entire region,” as well as that of Europe and the U.S., “and stability is a good,” he added. ...